agenda was the word used by Liverpool, 7, and others when they didnt like what I was saying about Mullen. I supposedly had some type of crazy agenda aagainst him
Printable View
If I think the negative outweighs the positive I'll go after a coach. Mullen did a LOT for MSU, and anyone who says otherwise is just either stupid, bitter, or had a personal grudge. Now that he is gone I see no need to defend him. I thought he had faults too, you would be surprised. I just didn't voice them when he was our coach. If he had started losing I would have. He never really did so I defended him. The only group think I see is in this thread.
That does make sense about UnderArmour.
I was pissed at Miami in 2015 for not taking him. As I said at the time and have been proven correct- that would have been the best thing for all parties involved. I think Dan being sulky hurt us big time in the 2016 recruiting class where he couldn't close on AJ Brown and Lashley among others. I just felt like the past two years I have been kind of listless regarding MSU football because you knew that Dan was not going to win very many big games and was probably going to go job hunting at the end of the year.
My "personal grudge" with Dan has to do with him screwing up Dak's senior night and the Egg Bowl last year while he was looking for jobs to stroke his ego. At the end of the day Dan was average as a coach. And Florida is about to find that out too.
At the end of the day I felt like he had way too much power and was given too much leeway especially under Stricklin. Great in games where we had the talent edge- but he made highly questionable decisions that were Les Miles-esque in close games and big games. In fact in one of his biggest wins in 2014 he almost gave the game away because with about 8 minutes of game time left he felt like it was important to play our back-ups and got us in a situation where a Hail Mary would have beaten us when we dominated the game all night long. His recruiting was average at best- thanks to defensive staff it would have been bad. And he didn't always play the best players- anyone remember Holloway up the middle against Alabama in 2015 on the goal line? LOL. And then he decided to insult our intelligence by saying Holloway played more because of his blocking- only to see the offense instantly improve once Aeris took over because of an injury to Holloway. Thank God Aeris finally learned the playbook and how to block that week.**
I actually agree with most of that........I told you would be surprised. I'd add he never could establish a stable staff on the defensive side of the ball. THAT hurt us more than anything you mentioned. The positives still outweighed the negatives. I'm 53, I had pretty much given up on sustained success on the level Mullen brought. I'd never seen it. I also never saw a MSU football coach leave without basically being fired. It was a welcome change. I guess that's why I'm not bitter. I take the long view.
I think at least some of Dan's perceived success has to do with the rise of the power 5 conferences. See USM- in 1980 they beat one of our best teams ever 42-14. As recent as 1990 we beat them 13-10 on a last second field goal. Fast forward to 2014- we beat them down 49-0 and it should have been 63-0. Then the next year we beat them in Hattiesburg something like 34-17 with Dak not being able to run and I believe USM won their division that year. Then you have the fact that you have the 12th game which is essentially a gimmie against a FCS team and it's easier to make a bowl than ever- a 5-7 team making a bowl was unheard of in years past.
Then the reality is Dan only had one winning SEC season and it clearly shows that he raised the floor but not the ceiling. And I think a lot of average coaches could have done what Dan did at MSU in the same era.
An audition for a future HC gig? Face it. Mullen may wind up there in four years after Flarda shitcans him (and Strick) in three years. There, he can keep his Country Club, be close to New Hampshire, run the Boston Marathon, go hiking in Europe, have down time away from coaching/recruiting, and keep a seven figure salary. You know, all the things he did here as an SEC HC that no other SEC school would have put up with.
Under Armour guy was a walkon football player at Maryland. The number I heard was Dan getting 5 Mill per year for 5 years. Also getting facility upgrades to make them more competitive. I think the money had him planning on going but then UGA and Miami both were more of what he wanted.